Jumbo King plans 100 stores beyond Mumbai

Jumbo King, the country's first and perhaps the only branded 'vada paav' kiosk chain which has offered the delectable yet quick snack to thousands of suburban Mumbaikars for the last six years, is set to traverse beyond India's financial capital.

The tangy, crisp and fairly filling dish, heavily relied upon by the 'always on the move, always short of time' commoner of Mumbai, is gearing up to please taste buds in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and of course in the land of the ultimate foodies - Gujarat.

Dheeraj Gupta, managing director, Jumbo King Foods, that runs the eponymous food chain, today said that the company has chalked out expansion plans that will take Jumbo King to the three cities at a blistering speed. The company will open its first outlet in Pune in the next fortnight, and will keep up the tempo by opening four more in the city by July end.

"We want to open 100 stores in the three territories by the end of the year 2007," Gupta said.

The company has 32 stores running in Mumbai, all of which are in the franchisee format. Gupta said the franchisee strategy will remain in place for the expansion as well. However, unlike the take-away nature of Mumbai's Jumbo King, the outlets in new markets like Pune, Bangalore or Delhi will be sit-in ones, with areas of between 600-100 square feet, he added.

Elaborating on the selection of places where Jumbo King would go, Gupta said the company will focus on the Indian hinterland with towns having a population of five lakh and more. "The initial expansion will be in 23 cities which have ten lakh plus population," he explained. The outlets will be pitched as family restaurants offering a variety of other food items in addition to vada-paav, he said.

Jumbo King has a central kitchen which supplies vadas to all its 32 outlets. The Mumbai kitchen will also support the Pune and Gujarat markets, while arrangements will be made with local bread makers, he said. When the all of the 100 outlets become operational, the company will achieve sales of Rs 25 crore on a full year basis, Gupta said, adding that the sales revenues will multiply as the chain becomes 1000 outlets strong by the year 2011.